Western Visayas (Region VI) is an administrative region in the Visayas island group in the Philippines. It includes the island of Panay and some smaller islands near it, the small island province of Guimaras, and the province of Negros Occidental. The world-famous beach island of Boracay is just off the northern tip of Panay.
Wikivoyage divides the Visayas up without using the administrative regions; see the Visayas article for details.
Provinces
Four of the provinces in the region are mainly on Panay Island:
- Aklan, includes the beach resort island, Boracay
- Antique
- Capiz
- Iloilo, with Panay's most populous city, Iloilo City One province has an island to itself:
- Guimaras is a small island in the strait between Panay and Negros. Another is part of the large island of Negros, not all of which is counted in this region:
- Negros Occidental is counted as part of the Western Visayas, but Negros Oriental as part of the Central Visayas.
In the Philippine government's administrative system, the Western Visayas are Region VI. At one time that region also included Palawan further west, but now they treat it as part of the Mimaropa region, administratively under Luzon. Wikivoyage treats Palawan as a separate region.
Cities
- Bacolod - Provincial capital of Negors Occidental, largest city in the region.
- Iloilo City - Provincial capital of Iloilo, home of the famous Dinagyang Festival.
- Jordan (Philippines) - Provincial capital of Guimaras.
- Kalibo - Provincial capital of Aklan, gateway to the world famous Boracay.
- San Jose de Buenavista - Provincial capital of Antique
- Roxas City - Provincial capital of Capiz.
Other destinations
- Boracay - a highly developed and very popular beach resort area
Understand
Talk
There are different local languages in the provinces of the region, all related but not mutually intelligible. Negros Occidental, Guimaras and Iloilo have Hiligaynon, Aklan has Akeanon, Capiz Capiznon, and Antique has Kinaray-a.
Both Tagalog (main language of Luzon to the north, and an official language for the whole country) and Cebuano (main language of various areas to the south and east) are also moderately commonly spoken, though neither is native to this region. Foreign residents in this region sometimes prefer to learn one of them, rather than a local language, because they are more widely useful.
English spoken well by most of the middle and elite class, and less well by many others.
Get in
Iloilo City is Panay's largest city and main transport hub. It has an airport with many domestic flights and some international flights. Ferries connect to nearby Guimaras and Bacolod, and to more distant places such as Palawan and Manila.
Kalibo airport gets many international charter flights full of Boracay-bound tourists. There are also scheduled flights from Manila, Cebu and some international destinations.
Get around
See
- Miag-ao Church which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Iloilo